Hanover, 12 November 2024

TUI Supervisory Board appoints CEO Sebastian Ebel and CFO Mathias Kiep for a further term of office – both contracts extended until 2028

  • Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dr. Dieter Zetsche: “Under the leadership of Sebastian Ebel, TUI has entered a new growth phase: the burdens of the Covid-19 crisis have been overcome. TUI is growing and, above all, the growth is sustainable and profitable. We want to continue on this course – with Sebastian Ebel as CEO and Mathias Kiep as CFO. The Supervisory Board today extended both appointments.”

TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel is set to lead TUI for a further term of office. At its meeting today, TUI AG's Supervisory Board approved the reappointment of the CEO. The contract of CFO Mathias Kiep has also been extended by three years. The current contracts of both members of the Executive Board run until September 2025. The new appointments will run until September 2028.

Sebastian Ebel assumed leadership of TUI as CEO on October 1, 2022. His long and distinguished career in the group includes being a board member responsible for driving the successful growth of the hotel and cruise business, and also as TUI's CFO during the pandemic. Mathias Kiep succeeded Ebel as CFO in October 2022.

In his first two years as CEO, Sebastian Ebel has focused on TUI's transformation, both strategically and operationally. The repayment of all government funds from the pandemic programs has been completed, management has been restructured and operations have been strengthened. The Group has recently reported double-digit growth in underlying EBIT for eight quarters in a row.

TUI is not only growing in existing markets with new products and new customers, but also aims to grow globally outside of Europe – with a scalable and dynamic range of tour operators, as well as new hotel clusters. For Hotels, the focus is on North, West and East Africa, and Asia, while new sales markets include Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Eastern Europe. TUI has been providing holiday experiences worldwide for decades, and will now leverage this global brand awareness to win local customers in countries that have traditionally been TUI destinations. This offers substantial potential for global customer growth.

Mathias Kiep was appointed CFO of the international tourism group on October 1, 2022. During his term of office, the Corona state aid was fully repaid. Thanks in part to successful capital market transactions, TUI's balance sheet structure was massively improved. He and his team prepared and successfully executed TUI's re-entry into the MDAX. In June 2024, after nine years, the Group ended its dual listing in the UK and Germany and has been at home on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange ever since. Mathias Kiep joined TUI AG in 2011 and was responsible, among other things, for strategy and mergers & acquisitions. As Managing Director of Finance at TUI Deutschland GmbH, he also gained extensive experience in the operational business of a large national company. 

Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of TUI AG: “TUI has had two successful years. This has been reflected in turnover and earnings from quarter to quarter. The Group has been able to overcome the consequences of the pandemic thanks to an enormous effort by the entire TUI team. Now the focus is purely on strong profitable growth. TUI is accelerating its transformation and thus creating the basis to continue playing a leading role in the rapidly growing global tourism segment. The tourism sector is healthy and continues to grow faster than the overall economy even after the pandemic. Travel is and will remain a global megatrend for the foreseeable future. The team around Sebastian Ebel is ideally positioned to lead TUI to further profitable growth. Together with all my colleagues on the Supervisory Board, I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with Sebastian Ebel as CEO, Mathias Kiep as CFO, and the entire TUI team.”

About TUI Group

The TUI Group is one of the world's leading tourism groups and operates worldwide. The Group is headquartered in Germany. TUI shares are listed in the MDAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in the regulated market of the Lower Saxony Stock Exchange in Hanover. TUI Group offers its 19 million customers integrated services from a single source and forms the entire tourism value chain under one roof. The Group owns over 400 hotels and resorts with premium brands such as RIU, TUI Blue and Robinson and 17 cruise ships, ranging from the MS Europa and MS Europa 2 in the luxury class and expedition ships in the HANSEATIC class to the Mein Schiff fleet of TUI Cruises and cruise ships operated by Marella Cruises in the UK. The Group also includes Europe's leading tour operator brands and online marketing platforms, for example for hotel-only or flight-only offers, five airlines with more than 130 modern medium- and long-haul aircraft and around 1,200 travel agencies. In addition to expanding its core business with hotels and cruises via successful joint ventures and activities in vacation destinations, TUI is increasingly focusing on the expansion of digital platforms. The Group is transforming itself into a global tourism platform company.  

Global responsibility for sustainable economic, environmental and social action is at the heart of our corporate culture. With projects in 25 countries, the TUI Care Foundation initiated by TUI focuses on the positive effects of tourism, on education and training and on strengthening environmental and social standards. In this way, it supports the development of vacation destinations. The globally active TUI Care Foundation initiates projects that create new opportunities for the next generation.